I attended the New York Toy Fair this past month held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center alongside Editor-in-Chief James Steigerwald. It was a fantastic showing of upcoming products from across different toy lines and distributors. A multitude of companies had made their way into the booths, showing off the newest additions to their toy lines. Mattel made its presence known with a whole floor of displays.
Some of the most notable products they had to show this year were their He-Man Movie line and their DC kid’s line that marks the beginning of their reacquisition of the DC Universe license. It has also been reported recently that Mattel will be taking on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) license going forward, which formally belonged to Playmates. This is a big deal, as Playmates had the license since the show’s debut. Mattel is definitely going to be a huge player in the toy industry in the coming years, revamping He-Man for a new generation and creating a new superhero line that may rival Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.
Speaking of Hasbro, they had a fair share to offer as well. Inside their depths were some new Marvel Legends reveals, specifically their Professor Hulk figure, which has garnered controversy online. Many are disappointed that this figure is getting an entirely new body mold, when the Maximum Hulk figure, Hasbro’s “definitive” Hulk, uses the same body they have been using for Hulk for nearly a decade, and was only released last year.
Hasbro also launched its 40th Anniversary project for The Transformers: The Movie. The figure reveals that complement to the movie includes new Studio Series 86’ Figures, including a new Shockwave, and a replica prop of the Matrix of Leadership. I will definitely be getting that Matrix – I cannot wait to pull it apart and hear The Touch by Stan Bush play.
Jazwares showed off prototypes of their K-Pop Demon Hunter Line, more figures to add to their Pokémon line, more Avatar: The Last Airbender figures, and finally, some new Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) figures. Hopefully, the FNAF figures won’t meet the same fate as the last batch that was released, with scalpers grabbing all of them and up-charging them to $100.
Neca also showed off a lot of new figures, including new ones from Predator Badlands which look awesome. Additionally, they are making figures of Bone Bison Dek, Njohrr, Thia & Bud, and Kwei. They also showed off more TMNT figures to be added to their successful 2012 TMNT line, as well as TMNT figures inspired by their Fortnite designs.
In other news, Diamond is back, but not in the way you might remember them! For those that don’t know, Diamond used to run their Diamond Select figure line as well as distribute comics, but announced they were closing doors last year. As learned from the Toy Fair, Ad Populum purchased Diamond and will now be using the name to distribute upcoming figures from other companies.
The brands they will be distributing, as revealed, are Beast Kingdom, Boss Fight Studio, Blitzway, Goodsmile Company, Hiya Toys, Kotobukiya, Medicom, Joy Toy, Star Ace, and Takatoku. This is exciting news for the company, as a lot of these brands are well-known and highly regarded. Adding a new distributor to the game will allow for these figures to become more accessible without paying ridiculous shipping and tariff prices to import them.
In the end, the Toy Fair had a lot of major news, with companies getting new licenses and some expanding on their current big sellers. 2026 definitely feels like a renaissance for toys and will mark a new beginning for them going forward.